Heart Attacks

""We used to think sudden death happens without warning, or very little warning -- a few minutes or an hour," said Chugh, the medical director of the Heart Rhythm Center in the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, and the Pauline and Harold Price Chair in Cardiac Electrophysiology Research."

"Their study made the surprising discovery that about half of patients who have a sudden cardiac arrest first experience symptoms like intermittent chest pain and pressure, shortness of breath, palpitations, or ongoing flu-like symptoms such as nausea and abdominal and back pain."

"With sudden cardiac arrest, the pumping action of the heart stops, causing blood flow to the rest of the body to stop. It is fatal about 90 percent of the time."

" 'This is what people don't understand. As each minute goes by, there's a 10 percent less chance of survival. If the paramedics get there in 10 minutes, you're gone.' " 12-15

“ 'The compressions-first approach appears to be as good as the defibrillation-first approach, especially if there are delays to EMS arriving on-scene,' says senior author Comilla Sasson, M.D., an emergency medicine physician researcher at the University of Colorado. 'This has major policy implications.' " 07-10